With the French on top of the table (internationally, we go by the number of gold medals, NOT by the total number of medals (AMERICANS)) and Canada's first gold medal on home soil, we go into Day 4 of the Games.

With the French on top of the table (internationally, we go by the number of gold medals, NOT by the total number of medals (AMERICANS))

FWIW, the total medals systems is very old in the US media and historically has worked to their detriment. It's been in use since the 1896 games, and 3 times has resulted in the USA being second on the medals board (with Greece, Sweden, and the USSR benefiting) despite having the most golds. 2008 is the only year that total medals worked in the USA's favor, and the only year since 1964 that the two systems have ultimately resulted in a different country atop the leaderboard.

The Olympic Charter, of course, forbids ranking the countries, stating: "The IOC and the OCOG (the local Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games) shall not draw up any global ranking per country".

Apparently he set his own best time, still 50 to go and the course is "deteriorating".

Yeah, his time was really quick out of the gate. Other skiers seem to be catching up at the bottom of the hill, but they're starting .7 seconds behind Bode's time to the first marker and having to make up ground throughout the race.

So, this is one of the big events of the entire Olympics. I like it because there are no judges involved.

NBC has four channels available to televise the Olympics. There's even the added benefit (for them, I don't particularly care) of an American being a legitimate contender.

And it's not on television. Unfuckingbelievable. NBC itself has cross-country skiing, which has all the drama of tag-team nosepicking. The other three are running infomercials or something. And Walchhofer's probably skiing the downhill right now.